Cavendo is based in Manassas, Virginia, within Prince William County in Northern Virginia. We’re conveniently located just outside Washington, D.C., in the hub of economic growth as part of the National Capital Area and the Northeast Megalopolis.

Why is this important? When I founded the firm in 2000 we started in this area and chose to stay. Two recent reports in the national media only reaffirm this decision and I can personally attest to all of the great things about our community that these reports highlight.

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As Facebook and Google continue to compete for internet domination, the micro-blogging platform, Twitter has progressed from geeky obscurity to a viable platform worthy of corporate attention. Recent news has featured a Twitter Presidential Candidate Debate, a White House Town Hall and a N.A.S.A. Tweet Up. Each of these initiatives sparked a buzz within the larger framework of news media as it engaged the Twitter community, 140 characters at a time. Of course, engagement requires more than a registered account and an icon on your website. Your Twitter usage, like any medium worth the investment of your time and resources, benefits from a modicum of know-how and strategy.

Learn More About:

• Customizing Your Twitter profile
• Leveraging Twitter Search
• Engaging by Tweet Type

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Brand recognition is a staple of any company’s marketing strategy. And with social networking, that recognition has shifted drastically to the online world. Physical branding–the kind you see on billboards and letterheads–MUST be translated to the online platforms where target audiences relate and interact.

Facebook, initially known for building personal connections, is now a leading online service for corporate advertisement and communication. However, changes on the platform roll out frequently, and between profiles, groups, places, and pages, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with the different options. Facebook Pages was created for brands. It allows administrations to separate their personal and professional lives by treating a company as an entity with “fans” to be “liked” instead of as a “friend” to be “added.” Out of the box, Facebook Pages provide companies the opportunity to share news, upload photos, display information, update Twitter, add video, and integrate with websites. Pages can also be promoted with Facebook Ads and metrics can be accessed via Facebook Insights. There’s even a suite of applications that can enhance your Page–but be sure to research these applications carefully.

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Your website should always, ALWAYS have a specific purpose. Just as you would run an ad in the local newspaper to generate new leads for your business, you should have similar expectations of your website. Would you run an ad just because it’s what other businesses do? No! You run an ad to get more customers.

So why is it so many business owners slap up a website and then forget about it? To spend that kind of money just to do something because “it’s what everyone else is doing” is insane.

But perhaps you do have a goal for your website. Perhaps you want it to generate form submissions. Or you could just want traffic to your blog. These are goals worth attaining.

Now, here’s the question: Are you attaining them?

Can you even answer this question? Chances are you can’t – because you aren’t measuring your successes.

Whether you’re using SMART or DUMB goals, you should always be able to see how far you’ve gone in reaching them. If you have a goal to pay off a car loan, would you not measure how much money you have coming in each month to clear out that debt?

So here are three solid metrics that you can apply today to your website to determine whether or not you’re succeeding.

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The homepage was dealt a tough hand. Not only is it the first page new visitors see when accessing your site, it also serves as the face of your organization. We ask much of the homepage, and in return, we should treat it with some respect.

But sadly, most of us don’t. And the homepage retaliates by being ineffective, sending few conversions and turning the entire website into an exhausting heap of confusion.

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Getting to page one of Google’s search engine is mankind’s new Holy Grail. Page one means visibility. And visibility means money.

And like all quests to achieve some Holy Grail, we trip, fall, and stumble our way to what we hope is the path to success. Unfortunately, there are no signs or arrows to point us in the right direction. There are guides — people who can lead us — but many are just as lost as we are. Some guides will speak of keyword density while others may push you hard toward linking strategies.

But when it comes to better search engine rankings, there’s really only one thing that matters: content.

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Since the iPad’s debut over a year ago, and the introduction of the 3G version at the end of April last year, everyone was quick to jump to conclusions one way or the other. I’ve recently been thinking about how the addition of this new little ~$1000 addition to my tech arsenal ($729 for 3G Wi-Fi plus data costs & accessories) has impacted my life since I’ve had it a year this week.

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I stumbled across an interesting post yesterday that asked the question, “Why do most websites fail?” The post itself wasn’t what interested me — it was the reader comments. With millions and millions of websites floating around the internet, many of them are doomed to failure. But why? What makes one website succeed over another?

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This week we’re excited to welcome Vajaah Parker to our growing team at Cavendo! Originally from New Jersey, Vajaah attended American University in Washington DC, where she majored in Graphic Design with a concentration in User Interface Development. Her experience with e-commerce, branding, web design, and non-profits will serve as an asset to Cavendo’s growing base of clients.

Follow her on Twitter at @vajaah or email her and be sure to say hello!

Edit (04/02/2011): Happy April Fool’s Day!

A lot of people have been asking about my travels lately, especially closer to home where I’ve been spending a lot of time throughout the DC region. The truth is I’ve been working on a new secret project that I couldn’t even tell my closest colleagues and friends about. Well, today the secret is out.

For those not familiar with Northern Virginia, there are effectively three areas: Loudoun County, Fairfax County (and Arlington/Alexandria), and Prince William County. The later county includes various cities and towns like the City of Manassas, City of Manassas Park, Town of Dumfries, and the Town of Haymarket. Most people only relate to Prince William County (PWC) or Manassas. The other municipalities typically get overlooked from a larger regional standpoint just as Leesburg, Middleburg, etc., do within Loudoun County for identification purposes.

Prince William is unique in that the three seats of local government are very close together and the city/county boundaries overlap in many places. It’s not uncommon to see police officers from the county cruising through the city — typically on their way to the courthouse which is within the city. Therein lies the problem and why Cavendo was retained for this secret project. Every organization and especially the governments have an allegiance to either “Prince William” or “Manassas.”

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